Family Story Telling

 Honourable Prime Minister Mr. Narendra Modi in his 69th edition of the monthly radio address Maan Ki Baat spoke about the importance of story telling and also about family values. As with most other ideas and thoughts of our PM, I agree to this view too. Story telling is one of the most interesting and best method to engage audience of any age group in any forum.

Story telling as a teaching pedagogy is very effective for all age groups. So, personally I have used it in every subject I have taught across various academic streams and courses. Students may not remember the textbook points but often remember the story narrated while teaching the chapter. Story telling helps to explore the teacher's creativity and connect at a different level with the students. Values certainly are learnt through the various stories shared.

Organizational story telling has become very popular in the last decade. Sharing the growth story of the organization, department, brands etc by the leaders or older employees of the organization helps to establish an instant connection with the rest of the employees. It fosters a sense of belongingness among the newer employees and contributes towards lower attrition rates in the organization. The pride with which a person shares his/her story in an organization speaks volumes about his/her oneness with the organization.

It is extremely important for families to share their stories with each other. Family stories are most interesting because it always has elements of drama, suspense, humor and varied emotions all included in it unlike the stories shared in a formal atmosphere of a classroom or office premises. There are no specific objectives thought of while narrating family stories. Most importantly the relatability element of family stories is very high. Stories can be about the challenges of settling down in urban life from rural life, or settling in a new country, or about school and college days, or about how marriages were fixed and topics are endless. It is these family stories that can teach us the best values and help us build resilience. I grew up listening to one grandma in our family narrating her experience of travelling from Karachi to Mumbai during the partition of India with 3 kids without her husband who had to stay back at Karachi. It was fascinating to listen to another lady who shared her experience of fleeing from Kashmir when their house was surrounded by militants. The story of my mother in law's experience of being in the hijacked flight where Flight Attendant Neerja Bhanot showed her bravery gives us goosebumps every time we recall it. Family stories are numerous and every family has a treasure of them. Every year people remember their ancestors and perform some rituals in their memory. My suggestion to all is to recall and share stories of the person for whom one is performing rituals. The next generation will learn immensely from it. The learning point from family stories is how resilient the family members were to face such situations bravely and go on with life normally. The reason for such resilience was the strength each drew from the other. All would communicate with each other and listen to each other with an open mind. 

It is this resilience that we all must develop. Anxiety, feeling low for unexplained reasons, fearing the unknown, overthinking are all thoughts that bothers all of us. But reaching out to someone immediately and willing to heal ourselves by sharing and listening is most important. On the occasion of World Mental Health Day I wish each one of us understand that mental health is as important as physical health. Just as anyone can suffer from a physical illness similarly anyone can suffer from mental illness too. Even the great archer Arjuna suffered anxiety and dejection before the Mahabhartha war. He did not hesitate to express his fears to his mentor Lord Krishna and listened to him with an open mind to gather himself to fight the war. Mental health promoters cannot do anything without the support of the person who is suffering. It is entirely in our hands to recognize when there is a trigger and seek help with the objective to heal ourselves.

Enjoy your day by recalling and sharing a family story.

Note: Please share an interesting family story in the comments section.

This blog is dedicated to my very affectionate story telling family.